True. Mainly what I'm saying is, make it a separate project, and get up to speed first on the literature, which is a lot more advanced than anything being discussed in this thread. (I'm not up to speed either, I've just skimmed.)

Re: computers...the point there is that by the logic of the "deflationary spiral," people should put off their purchases of computers and cellphones, since they can get so much more for the money next year (or the same thing for a lot less money). Yet these are some of the most dynamic sectors of the economy, despite a deflation rate approaching 50% per year.

It's true that we had deflation during the Great Depression. What people overlook is that we also had deflation during the Roaring Twenties. What's more, "Between 1870 and 1896, prices fell consistently amid rapid economic growth—with plenty of booms and busts along the way." Source: http://www.slate.com/id/2258810

Deflation caused by lessening demand, due to everyone being too in debt to buy as much, can be pretty horrible, since it makes it that debt even harder to pay off. But deflation that's just due to the money supply not keeping up with economic growth doesn't appear to be a problem.

Google peer-to-peer or p2p reputation systems and you'll see it's an active area of research, with all kinds of sophisticated schemes in development.

I don't think there's any need for the bitcoin project to get directly involved, any more than the Fed is involved in credit bureaus or the FTC. It's pretty interesting stuff though...